<h1 align="center">
flex_string
</h1>

<p>This code accompanies the article 
"Type-Safe Formatting" in C/C++ Users Journal, July 2005. 
It implements a simple <tt>printf</tt> emulation framework,
 which is typesafe at the price of a slightly modified invocation syntax.</p>

<p><tt>flex_string</tt> is a drop-in replacement for the standard string 
(<tt>std::basic_string</tt>, better known by its <tt>typedef</tt>ed name, 
<tt>std::string</tt>.
If you think that reimplementing a likely fine-tuned component of your
standard library is not a very rewarding endeavor, think again. 
<tt>flex_string</tt>
has a policy-based design allowing unparalleled control over its
behavior and optimizations, and also allows you to define new
implementations in only a few dozens of lines of code. If you're
looking for controllable performance and predictible behavior with
multiple threads, then <tt>flex_string</tt> might be of interest to you.</p>

<p>To find more about <tt>flex_string</tt>, you may want to read 
<a href="http://erdani.org/publications/cuj-06-2001.html" target="_top"><i>
"A Policy-Based <code>basic_string</code> Implementation,"</i></a> 
C/C++ Users Journal, June 2001. </p>

<p>The downloadable code consists of the <tt>flex_string</tt> header and 
a test suite that compares its behavior against <tt>std::string</tt>. 
Though no performance comparison suite is available at this time, 
Harmut Kaizer reported that simply dropping in <tt>flex_string</tt> 
in the Wave Boost Preprocessor improved its speed by 5-10%, 
depending on input.</p>

<p>Justin Matthews contributed with 
<a href="http://erdani.org/code/flex_string_hash.h">flex_string_hash.h</a>, 
an add-on for <tt>flex_string</tt>
that allows using it with hash maps. Justin's code supports (and
automatically recognizes) two implementations: STLPort and Microsoft
Visual C++ 7.1.</p>
